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Toro Y Moi Live from Trona

About

Following extensive touring behind What For?, his fourth studio album as Toro Y Moi, acclaimed musician Chaz Bundick brought the band to the middle of the Mojave Desert in April 2016 to play a special concert. Live from Trona documents this experience, recorded live beneath the geological wonders known as the Trona Pinnacles, which formed thousands of years ago in what used to be a prehistoric lake. The album features unique live arrangements of songs from across the band’s catalog, new music, and an expanded band line-up. On the congas, Bay Area multi-instrumentalist Brijean Murphy adds a layer of rhythm, switching between propulsion and deep atmosphere. And for a brand new song, “JBS,” the group is joined by tourmates The Mattson 2. This collaboration between Bundick and the Mattson twins takes on a classic groove with a jazz fusion approach.

For the film, nine-time Vimeo Staff Pick director Harry Israelson chose to break the fourth wall, revealing the filmmaking process by making equipment, lights, and crew visible at all times. With no audience in attendance and a spectacular natural environment that feels otherworldly, the film pays homage to rock films of a previous era. As the sun sets behind the pinnacles, the supernatural setting seamlessly weaves together with the 13 psychedelic tracks, all recorded on site over the course of an entire day. Through the use of hand-drawn animations and behind-the-scenes VHS footage, Live from Trona offers viewers a surreal concert experience, placing them front row at a private Toro Y Moi show.

Artist Bio

Chaz Bear (formerly Bundick) was a musician from birth. Growing up, it was normal to hear music across genres, from Michael Jackson to Elvis Costello to The Specials, in the Bundick household. These influences were quite unique for a biracial kid growing up in South Carolina, contributing to the complexity of Chaz’s self-understanding and expression through his own music.

Chaz began playing and recording original compositions in his preteen years, forming multiple indie bands starting in middle school and continuing until his personal project, Toro y Moi, was signed by Carpark Records in 2009. Before getting signed, he was already an incredibly prolific artist, having released over 10 Toro y Moi albums on his own (and undoubtedly retaining a vast compendium of unreleased songs). His personal work drew upon a vaster array of influences than did his full band. Early Toro work called upon Chaz’s childhood exposure to 80’s R&B, pop and electronic music, while also evolving with his discoveries of acts like My Bloody Valentine and J Dilla and his burgeoning interest in French house. Just before his graduation from the University of South Carolina, where he earned a degree in graphic design, Chaz caught the attention of music bloggers and record labels with his dreamy, bedroom recordings, eventually compiled into his first album under Carpark Records, Causers of This.

Causers was one of a few albums to kick off the trend of home-recorded, hazy albums relying heavily on samples and production, evoking the feeling of a muggy, Southern summer. While the album did well and broke ground for Chaz’s career as a musician, it resulted in the widespread assumption that Chaz was a one trick pony, able only to write music similar to that of Causers. He immediately made it clear that he is an extremely dynamic musician with the 2011 release of Underneath the Pine, an album recorded between tours that was composed entirely of live instrumentation, moving away from the sample-based aesthetic of Causers. From then on, Chaz released an album every other year (sometimes more frequently), each one a display of his adeptness with different genres. While each album was distinct and sometimes a complete departure from the previous, Chaz’s unique production techniques and melodic sensibilities tie them all together. Whether listening to the psych rock-based What For? or 2017’s R&B-influenced Boo Boo, it is always clear that it’s a Toro y Moi album.

The most recent Toro y Moi album, Outer Peace, was written and recorded in the Bay Area after Chaz’s return from a one year stint in Portland. It is somewhat of a homecoming celebration, filled with features by friends and saturated with a playfulness that had not previously been embraced in past Toro albums. Outer Peace stands in contrast to the more sparse and contemplative Boo Boo, an album recorded while in Portland in relative isolation. With Outer Peace, Chaz showcases his ability to remain on the cutting edge of music’s evolution while not taking himself too seriously. There are contemporary hip hop references mixed in with funk, Eurodance and ambient elements, all interwoven expertly and retaining that quintessential Toro y Moi aesthetic.

Only five days after releasing Outer Peace, Chaz posted a photo of a cassette titled “SOUL TRASH V1” on his Instagram with Dropbox link to what appeared to be a mixtape.  Later, the post and link were taken down and for the first time, Soul Trash will receive a proper release on October 29th along with a short film by Laneya Billingsley.


Marketing Info

PRESS CONTACTS
North America: erint@grandstandhq.com
Europe: andy@carparkrecords.com
Japan: ben@hostess.co.jp

ON AIR
• North American publicity by Grandstand
• First 2200 copies on limited edition pink vinyl
• November North American headline tour
• Vinyl includes free digital download
• Free mp3 download + 50% discount code for Vimeo concert film

UPCs
2LP: 677517011715
Digital: 677517011753

Tracklist

1. Divina
2. What You Want
3. Buffalo
4. Still Sound
5. Ratcliff
6. Half Dome
7. The Flight
8. JBS (feat. The Mattson 2)
9. Lilly
10. High Living
11. Grown Up Calls
12. Say That
13. Yeah Right